Dozens of women from the Marshall Islands are traveling to the U.S. every year to adopt out their babies to U.S. families despite government efforts to crack down on this unique baby pipeline. We examine the people and practices that are continuing to perpetuate the problem.

University of Hawaii researchers tracked dozens of hungry tiger
sharks to a remote atoll in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine
National Monument this summer. Civil Beat photojournalist Alana
Eagle documents the expedition in this multimedia special report.

A Civil Beat Investigation: In Hawaii’s workers’ comp system, people with long-lasting injuries are often forced to battle doctors hand-picked by insurance companies to get treatment and disability payments.

No Danger Of Flooding At Nuuanu Dam, City Says

There is no longer a danger of flooding or a need for possible evacuations near a 21-million-gallon Nuuanu reservoir that filled close to capacity with the recent heavy rain from Tropical Storm Olivia, city officials said Thursday afternoon.

Earlier there had been speculation that 10,000 people might need to be evacuated, but that is no longer the case, Ernest Lau, manager and chief engineer for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, said at a press conference.

Dam No. 1, an earthen dam built in 1905, filled with rainwater to about 1.5 feet below the dam’s spillway. A mandatory evacuation would only be necessary if the water actually breached the dam’s spillway.

City workers pump water from a near-capacity reservoir in Nuuanu on Thursday morning.

Marcel Honore/Civil Beat

In an earlier statement the BWS said it “has been monitoring and siphoning the excess water from the reservoir since the beginning of the week to keep the water level below the spillway. However, with the passing of Olivia, the rain exceeded the siphoning capacity.”

The Honolulu Fire Department had about 16 firefighters at the scene with about three trucks and a helicopter to provide aerial surveillance Thursday morning. Fire and BWS crews parked their vehicles and worked along the reservoir’s makai bank, as police and city officials observed.

An enclave of houses lies on the other side of that bank.

By 11:30 a.m. those crews appeared to have the flood threat under control. The water had receded to about 5 feet below the dam spillway as the pumps sent it into nearby Waolani Street.

BWS will continue pumping water from the dam in anticipation of more rainfall this hurricane season.

Ernest Lau of the Board of Water Supply displays an evacuation map based on a breaching of the dam.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

BWS was in contact with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which requires all dam owners to report concerns to the department.

No other facilities or reservoirs are experiencing issues, the DLNR said in a press release.

Lau said the BWS will review its emergency processes.

If an evacuation had to occur, the evacuation area could stretch from lower Nuuanu near the dam all the way down to Honolulu Harbor, according to a map provided by BWS.

“We would actually start the evacuation before a failure occurs,” said Hiro Toiya, deputy director of Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management.

Any such evacuation should be completed in an hour, Toiya said. A city incident management team was evaluating how to approach potential evacuation conditions in the future.

“There are opportunities to improve here in the (evacuation) process,” Lau said.

The Legislature has provided funding to plan for dam renovations, but there is no construction money available yet, Lau said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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About the Author

Blaze Lovell is a reporter for Civil Beat and a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was born and raised on Oahu. You can reach him at blovell@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at @blaze_lovell

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